Archive for the ‘Openings’ Category

The Sinful Kitchen(facebook, website) is now open. Chef David Mallari plans to serve brunch 5 days a week, Wednesday through Sunday. It’s located at 906 Brighton Ave in the building formerly occupied by La Familia.

Isa(facebook, website) is opening for business tonight. Owners Suzie St. Pierre and Isaul Perez have a number of years experience working in restaurants in New York City. It’s billed as a “cozy neighborhood bistro serving an eclectic yet seasonally driven menu“.

The restaurant is located at 79 Portland Street just a couple doors down from Back Bay Grill. Isa will be open 6 days a week Wednesday through Monday. They’ll initially be serving just dinner but plan to eventually be open daily 11am – close.

Owner Pete Sueltenfuss opened the Otherside Delicatessen (facebook) yesterday. The Otherside is located at 164 Veranda Street near the Washington Ave exit from 295. They serve a line up of pizzas, grinders and sandwiches made with house-cured meats. Beer, wine, and other neighborhood market staples are also for sale.

After years away from The Cafe, the neighborhood spot he built at 484 Stevens Avenue, owner/chef Greg Gilman has returned. He reopened The Cafe as The Treehouse on January 23, offering a similar menu and even staffed with a similar team, for those who pine for the way things used to be.

Pete Sueltenfuss is planning to open his new market in East Deering, the Otherside Delicatessen(facebook), this Thursday. The Otherside will sell house butchered and cured meats, sandwiches, pizzas, pastas, prepared meals to go as well as market staples.

A new Portland delivery service called Cartender(website, facebook, 207-200-3125) launched yesterday. Cartender has partnered with Old Port Spirits to “deliver beer, wine, spirits, and mixers to your door”. Cartender operates 7 days a week: 4-8pm M-Th, 3-8 on Fri, and 12-8 on the weekends.

Have you ever been sitting in your apartment in Portland and wanted a beer but didn’t want to go anywhere? Jim O’Brien and Scott Nevers has created a service that was perfectly designed for that occasion, Cartender. It’s a delivery service that brings beer, wine, spirits and mixers to your Portland residence. You place your order online and they drive it to you.

Tiqa (facebook, twitter) is scheduled to open today. The pan-Mediterranean restaurant is the creation of husband and wife team Deen Haleem and Carol Mitchell with chef Bryan Dame heading up the kitchen staff and Patrick Morang as the bar manager.

Tiqa is located at 321 Commercial Street in the ground floor of the new Marriott hotel.

Maine Craft Distilling-Freeport edition is now open for biz. We are calling it our “soft” opening and are sure there is much that we will need to improve upon but come on by and try us out!!! The gala grand opening will be in the new year.

The John Roberts Road location is OTTO’s 9th location overall (10, if you count our Portland delivery facility), and is one of our roomiest, with 5 picnic tables, and an indoor bocce court. Diners can enjoy pizza by the slice or whole pie, along with a full array of beverages, including beer and wine. (Yes, we’re serving Autohelm, our brand new collaboration with Rising Tide Brewing Company!)

Ebb & Flow (facebook, twitter, website, instagram, opentable) has been fine tuning their operation over the last few days with a series of private events and plans to open Thursday at 5 pm. The menu is a mix of Mediterranean inspired seafood and meat dishes. Appetizers will generally be in the $8-14 range and entrees $15-25. The “1000 Degree” items will be a bit more expensive.

Ebb & Flow is co-owned by Angello Ciocca, founder of Nova Seafood, and chef William D’Auvray. It is located at 100 Commercial Street in the completely renovated space formerly occupied by Spread.

To start out Ebb & Flow will be open for dinner Monday though Saturday. They to eventually start serving lunch and Sunday brunch as well.

Oxbow Brewing Company’s new tasting room in Portland is set to open on Thursday at noon. The room is part of a 10,000 sq ft space at 49 Washington Ave that Oxbow took over this summer to use for aging, blending and bottling their beer.

The door to the tasting room is at the back of the driveway to the left of CBD. It’s hand lettered sign (by Will Sears) reads Oxbow Blending and Bottling.

The C Salt Gourmet Market (facebook) in Cape Elizabeth opened on Wednesday. The market is owned by Mike and Stephanie Concannon. The market sells “Coffee, muffins, cookies and bakery items, gourmet sandwiches and grab and go meals.”

Two more businesses have opened along Congress Street in the West End:

A new coffee shop called Arabian Days opened on Tuesday at 3 Deering Ave in a store front shared with Tawakal Halal market. Arabian Days serves Carpe Diem Coffee from North Berwick, Maine. The shop is open 7 days a week, 6 am – 8 pm (6-6 on Sundays).

The new Bramhall (facebook, instagram) had a soft opening last night; they’re grand opening is scheduled for 5 pm today. The bar is located at 769 Congress Street in the old Bramhall Pub space in the basement of the Roma. Bramhall is owned by Michael Fraser, the chef is Chris Beaulieu (form sous chef at Duckfat) and the bar manager is Guy Streitburger. Maine Today has posted a set of photos of the space and the menu and additional details on the bar.

Bramhall and Arabian Days join joins Tandem Bakery, Skillet (still in development), Tawakal Halal and Salvage along with a few established businesses (Yordprom, Flores, and Bodega Latina, Hong Kong Market, etc) in the ongoing development of the business district that stretches from past Longfellow through Bramhall Square and down to Saint John.

What’s a “Muffuletta” and how did you settle on that as your signature item?I grew up in a small sandwich shop in the center of Ogunquit called Fancy That. It was a fun little funky shop that was frequented by all the locals and was slamming busy in the summer months with all the beach-frequenting tourists. It has since been changed to Cornerstone Pizzeria. We used to make our version of the Muffuletta. There would be two different types each day. People would line up to see what kind of Muffuletta was being served and the next thing you know, sold out!